[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 129 (Tuesday, July 30, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S5177]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Prescription Drug Costs

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, I want to inform my colleagues and the 
American people about some progress that has been made on a very 
important bipartisan piece of legislation, plus what a couple other 
committees are doing along the same line of keeping healthcare costs 
down--that we are making progress to reduce the price of prescription 
medicine for the American people.
  I have been tilling the fields of legislative policy long enough to 
know that we have our work cut out for us. The ranking member and I of 
the Finance Committee started out 6 months ago to cultivate a 
bipartisan consensus for much needed reforms. We knew that we had a 
long row ahead. Our efforts to reduce drug prices face big-time 
opposition from Big Pharma.
  As we worked side by side in a Republican and Democratic way, we 
planted the seeds to grow a strong bipartisan coalition--one strong 
enough, I believe, to withstand the influence of moneyed special 
interests.
  Now, it should be no surprise to anybody that Big Pharma and other 
stakeholders in the drug supply chain are working six ways from Sunday 
to throw sand in our gears. We know they will continue to fight us 
during the August work period.
  As a lifelong farmer from Iowa, I learned a long time ago that the 
fruits of one's labor will not be worth a hill of beans without proper 
groundwork. For months, we have been tilling the soil and fertilizing 
the legislative fields to bear fruit at harvest time. We have teamed up 
with leadership of other key committees of jurisdiction.
  Together with the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Health 
Committee, Senators Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray, and the chairman 
and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senators Lindsey 
Graham and Dianne Feinstein, the Senate has a real opportunity this 
Congress to deliver meaningful reforms that would yield real savings 
for what Americans spend on healthcare.
  Both the Health and the Judiciary Committees have advanced 
legislative packages that help address drug prices, including bills I 
have sponsored, such as the CREATES Act, the Stop STALLING Act, and the 
Prescription Pricing for the People Act.
  Since January, the Finance Committee, which I chair, and Senator 
Wyden is the ranking member, has held a series of hearings to examine 
the vulnerabilities in the drug supply chain that are ripe for abuse. 
We don't have the answers to all the problems, but it is really crystal 
clear that a strong dose of transparency is desperately needed to shed 
light on a convoluted pricing system when dealing with prescription 
drugs.
  From the drug manufacturer to the patient's medicine cabinet, the 
drug supply chain is shrouded in secrecy and is exceedingly complex. 
This opaque pricing system has allowed exorbitant price hikes to climb 
higher and higher and higher, with no end in sight.
  Don't forget, the taxpayers of the United States foot the bill for 
the lion's share of prescription drugs through Medicare and Medicaid.
  The woolly drug supply chain allows taxpayers to be fleeced year 
after year. We need to let the sunshine in to help root out their 
abusive practices. Secrecy in the supply chain has grown into a noxious 
weed, damaging our free market ecosystem.
  Transparency is needed to help rein in unsustainable costs 
threatening the fiscal viability of Medicaid and Medicare. Seniors, 
individuals with disability, and low-income Americans depend on these 
programs for lifesaving medicine and innovative cures.
  Last week, the Senate Finance Committee approved the bipartisan 
Prescription Drug Price Reduction Act. The carefully sown Grassley-
Wyden bill limits seniors' out-of-pocket costs without limiting access 
to lifesaving cures Americans expect. It injects reasonable incentives 
in government prescription drug programs for drug manufacturers and 
insurers to keep prices low. Pharmaceutical companies and insurers need 
to have more skin in the game to keep prices down. It also fixes flawed 
policies that distort free market principles to lower the lid on 
spending.
  We all know in the town meetings and other places we go that 
Americans have spoken very loudly on this subject. They want high 
prescription drug prices addressed. Furthermore, Americans want 
Congress to act and to act now.
  The Senate Finance, HELP, and Judiciary Committees have acted. Now it 
is time to get the job done.
  As my fellow lawmakers go home over the August recess, I encourage 
each of you to share the good news with your constituents. Americans 
are fed up with sticker shock at the pharmacy counter. We have the 
opportunity to deliver a badly needed legislative remedy.
  First, we have to drain the swampy special interests blocking the 
path to victory. The moneyed players in the drug supply chain will use 
the August recess to unleash a public relations blitz against our 
bipartisan efforts. You can bet the farm that Big Pharma, hospitals, 
and pharmacy benefit managers will whip themselves into a real frenzy 
to kill these bipartisan reforms.
  Let's remember why we started down this path in the first place. It 
is simply democracy working, representative government working.
  Americans are demanding relief at the prescription counter. We hear 
it from our constituents in our town meetings, in our letters, in our 
emails, and in the phone calls we get. Unchecked drug prices are 
putting Medicare and Medicaid in financial peril. The payment structure 
is unmoored from fiscal reality, and the American taxpayer is on the 
hook. Congress has a real opportunity to do something about the 
spiraling of drug prices.
  For my colleagues who are on the fence about our bipartisan 
proposal--and there is nothing wrong with being on the fence because 
you have plenty of time to become acquainted with an issue you hear 
from your constituents all the time and to become acquainted with our 
solution--here are a series of questions I want you to ask yourself: Do 
Americans want us to act to reduce runaway drug prices? Do Americans 
want to keep access to breakthrough drug therapies and innovation? Do 
older Americans want protection from coverage gaps and out-of-pocket 
costs? Do people with disabilities and poor and elderly Americans who 
depend on Medicaid deserve access to innovative cures and next-
generation therapies?
  The answer to all of these questions, I think, is a resounding yes.
  Farmers are smart enough to make hay while the Sun shines. Let's 
apply that time-tested farm lesson in the Congress. Don't bail out on 
the opportunity to make a meaningful difference for the people whom we 
are elected to serve. Too many Americans are rationing or skipping 
doses because they can't afford their prescription medicines.
  I will finish as I started out by saying, on behalf of Senator Wyden, 
Senator Alexander, Senator Murray, Senator Graham, Senator Feinstein, 
and others, I suggest to our colleagues that this is our Goldilocks 
moment. Let's not let it be a gridlock moment. Our legislative reforms 
are not too far right and not too far left. That is what makes our 
bipartisan remedy to lower prescription drug prices just exactly right 
for the American people.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.